Armed with an appeals court decision loosening the definition of what constitutes a public right of way, the Governor's Office unveiled an ambitious, aggressive plan to claim old Jeep and mining roads across federal land in every county of the state.

Under the plan, counties now need only to identify, record and map the roads they claim as their own under an old mining law known as RS 2477, which granted public rights of way across federal land. The statute was repealed in 1976, but existing roads were grandfathered in.

Lynn Stevens, the state's public lands policy coordinator, said that in the wake of this month's 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, it is state law - not Bureau of Land Management policies - that will now guide the counties in their quest to claim the roads.

As such, counties now need to prove 10 years of continuous use on a road before 1976 to claim ownership. Previously, they had to prove construction or continued maintenance of a road to make a claim stick.

"It is our view that the counties clearly own all of these roads, as RS 2477 applies to state law," he said. "They need not ask permission to claim them or maintain them. All they have to do is put it on the record."

Between the new plan, and what he hoped will be successful negotiations with the BLM toward a new road maintenance agreement, Stevens predicted the long controversy over who owns Utah's back roads "will be reduced to zero."

But environmental groups that have opposed the state's past and current road claims in court say that the Huntsman administration has vastly overestimated the scope of the 10th Circuit's ruling. They vow to keep fighting.

"This decision was by no means a freebie and by no means will it be a cakewalk for the state," said Heidi McIntosh, conservation director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. "If the 10th Circuit decision made one thing clear, it's that there is a standard for what a road is, and proof [of continuous use] is required."

SUWA and other conservation organizations fear that the state, which has inventoried thousands of county roads for possible RS 2477 claims, will now free the counties to claim ownership of trails and two-tracks that go through national parks and monuments, and designated wilderness and wilderness study areas.

"You still have a major threat to places like Zion National Park and the San Rafael Swell, places that all Americans care about protecting," said Kristin Brengel, a spokesman for the Washington D.C.-based Wilderness Society. "The state is clearly trying to undermine protections on some of our most cherished public lands."

Stevens called that nonsense.

Utah has inventoried thousands of roads, he acknowledged. "But it's not fair or reasonable to say that we're going after thousands of roads. It's not in the thousands. In fact, it will be considerably less. In the end, the roads of significance for the counties are the roads they intend to maintain. And nobody I have talked to suggests there are roads in [national] parks and WSAs that will now be blasted open."

The state has joined San Juan County in an RS 2477 lawsuit over a road in the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park. It has also teamed with Emery County in claiming six roads in the San Rafael Swell. All are currently closed by federal land managers due to damage caused by off-highway vehicles.

BLM spokesman Don Banks said Wednesday night that he had not seen the state's new roads plan, and would not comment on it until he had.

Banks did acknowledge that the agency is in negotiations with the state on a new road maintenance plan - which would entail standardizing mileage markers and other road signs across federal land. But he said those talks have been ongoing for the past two months.

"By mutual agreement, we've identified the roads where the maintenance would be authorized," he said.

Because no recorded documents or construction records were required at the time the roads were created, and because they were not required in 1976 when the Federal Lands Policy Management Act was passed, state officials said Utah and its counties are under no obligation inform the BLM of their claims.

"The state and counties can move forward at their own pace," said Garfield County Commissioner Maloy Dodds.